Assessor won't seek reelection

Carson City Assessor Kit Carson Weaver had a logo designed for his first run at assessor in 1986, but he never got to use it.

Weaver, 60, has run unopposed every election year since 1986, so the red and blue "Kit Carson Weaver Carson City Assessor" logo with an image of his namesake explorer Kit Carson was relegated to grace business cards stashed in his desk.

"Election night there is so much euphoria for the winner. For me, that happened at 5 p.m. on the last day of filing in 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998," Weaver said. "Not many people get this opportunity."

Weaver won't have a chance to use the cards and logo this election year, either. After 17 years as Carson's assessor, Weaver said he doesn't plan to run for a fifth term.

So he is coming clean about one thing: Despite the name, he didn't grow up in Carson City. As a matter of fact, he's from the Los Angeles area.

"Perhaps I wouldn't have been elected four times if my name was Jim-something," he said. "It was kind of an unfair advantage"

The oldest of four children, Weaver's father decided to name all his children after famous Western explorers starting with Kit Carson.

"He thought better of it after me," Weaver said.

A Carson resident since 1976, Weaver was appointed assessor in 1985 after the death of Homer Gomez. Weaver has led the office from an era of handwritten assessments to having everything you ever wanted to know from the assessor available on the Internet. His focus has been to find ways to make information more easily accessible to the public. All this from a man who, for years, didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.

His parents moved their family from Southern California to Ukiah, Calif., when Weaver was in high school. After high school, he went to a community college where he took sociology and anthropology classes, but mostly focused on basketball and other sports, he said.

Early career tests said he should consider a life as a real estate broker. He worked at title companies and in other jobs around California before he and Lynn, his wife of 33 years, decided to move to Boise, Idaho.

The couple actually married in Carson City in 1968 because Lynn thought it would be a nice place to be wed. Years later, they returned for a weekend to see if they wanted to make the capital city their permanent home. They stayed at the Ormsby House on a weekend when the Carson Senators happened to win the state baseball championship.

"It was like Mardi Gras. We had never been to such a wonderful place in our lives," Weaver said. "Any time there's the potential for that, that's good."

They opened Kit's Antiques and Wines, but the business wasn't a success. Weaver again turned to the real estate industry, working for Bonanza Realty where he worked as he got both his real estate license and a broker license. When an opening came up for an appraiser at the assessor's office in 1977, he applied.

"I thought, 'I'll do this for a while,'" Weaver said. "Now it's 25 years later."

He almost lost his job during layoffs in 1982/1983, but eventually he became the deputy assessor in 1984. Terrified of speaking in public, Weaver said at first he wasn't sure he wanted the assessor's job. But the supervisors appointed him, and he began attending Toastmasters to learn better public speaking skills. He's never had to give an election speech.

As assessor, Weaver is charged with placing values on all property subject to taxation for the purpose of levying property taxes. He is responsible for determining taxable value on land, residential and commercial properties, business furniture and equipment, mobile homes and aircraft. He focused from 1986 to 1990 to increase the technology in the office.

He added one of the city's first geographic information system staff member which allowed the office to begin to produce computer generated rather than hand drawn maps. Weaver hired an appraisal specialist in place of a receptionist several years ago and split her duties amongst his staff. They answer more than 200 phone calls daily but hope assessor's information on-line will help people searching for property information answers.

Weaver also has been very active at the Nevada Legislature, testifying on pertinent laws.

He knows of no one interested, right now, in his job, which pays him $61,632. Salaries for the office start at $51,360 for the first four years.

An avid golfer who still dabbles in basketball, Weaver said he and Lynn bought a fifth-wheel trailer and plan on traveling around the West and Southwest. He has one son, Tim, and three grandchildren.

"I've been preparing financially to leave. It's not like overnight I decided to retire," Weaver said. "I've been planning on it."

Candidates for public office may file for election May 6 to May 20.